1. Leviticus: Tsav

More directions, but these are for Aaron and his progeny and their ordination and so forth.  Directions and rules.  What to do, but not why to do it.  Other than because we are commanded.

I follow some of the commandments.  Not all of them.  Recently a woman told me that west coast Judaism is watered down, not real like east coast Judaism.  She said that the Judaism she finds out here is not spiritual.  It is too focused on tikkun olam and politics.

It’s passover.  One of the commandments that I follow is to refrain from eating leaven during passover.  I started many years ago.  Long before I had my children.  Before I ever joined a synagogue.  My daughter, who is a Jew to her core, eats leaven during passover.  She says that not eating leaven does not make her more or less a Jew.  Her diet doesn’t bring her closer to her beliefs or distance her from them.  She says that she is not a slave and not eating bread does not connect her with the slaves of our history.  None of her Jewish friends are eating bread this week.

It feels good to me to not eat leaven during passover.  Jews all over the world are not eating leaven.  Maybe the connection I feel is to those Jews.  The Jews who are doing the same as me at the same time that I am doing it.  We are doing something for no reason other than because we are supposed to do it.  There is no obvious purpose.  There is no obvious result or expected outcome.  It’s easy to do things that have an obvious purpose.  We drive on the right side of the road because if we drove wherever we wanted, we’d all end up in accidents.  So to stay safe we have rules that we follow.  But following a commandment that does not lead to an obvious result is not as easy and (for me) creates a connection to everyone else who is following the same commandment.

And it feels good.  That is good for my spirit.  It is spiritual.  I am spiritual.  I am a west coast Jew.  We are spiritual….if that is what we choose.